Tetris Cookies

Ever since I was a kid, I've loved playing Tetris on my GameBoy. Just the word "Tetris" gets that electronic Russian music in my head all over again like an '80s earworm. It's hard not to like Tetris. It's problem solving, creative thinking, and stress management for adults and just plain fun for kids. My husband had a game night at his work and I wanted to contribute something, so when I saw these Tetris cookies by PSHeart, I thought they were perfect! I doubled my recipe, just like the original post did, but there's one little detail they left out that I want to warn you about...

Before I get to that, here's what you'll need to make 88 Tetris sugar cookies (more or less, depending on how large or small you cut them!):

1 cup of butter
1 1/2 cups of sugar
4 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 Tablespoon of milk
4 cups of flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder

Preheat your oven to 350 and cream the butter in your mixer. Add your sugar, vanilla extract, eggs, and milk and beat hard.

Add the flour and baking powder and beat again - if it's more liquidy than doughy, it's ok.
Cover your workspace with flour and roll out your dough. The thinner the dough, the crisper the cookies. If it's thick, the dough will puff up in the oven!

Now it's time to make the shapes. If you want to use a template, that'd be the smart solution. I decided to eyeball it instead. Meh.

Pop them in the oven until the bottoms and sides are golden brown (anywhere between 5-9 minutes, depending on the thickness of the cookies.

Let them cool before icing. Now if you have the time, you can make your own royal icing. However, by the time I finally got these puppies out of the oven, two hours had already gone by and I was exhausted. I colored white Pillsbury frosting out of a can instead. Don't kill me.

Now my version of Tetris on the Game Boy wasn't in color so I had no idea what color the pieces should be. Really, you can use any colors you want. If you have a black food writer pen, that'll probably work better than the black Wilton sparkle gel icing I used.

All in all, they were a big hit at game night, even if they didn't look perfect and took over 4 HOURS to make. This is one of those times where you can and should tell your kid, "Don't forget to play with your food!"

TOTAL COSTS: About $20 to make 88 cookies

$.99 for the butter

$2.69 for the sugar

$2.79 for the eggs

$2.29 for the milk

$3.29 for the flour

$1.99 for the baking powder

$1.99 for the frosting

$2.99 for the black Wilton Sparkle Gel

Used homemade vanilla extract and had food coloring on hand

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: A little over 4 hours

10 minutes to make dough

2 hours to cut and bake 88 cookies

2 hours to decorate 63 of them

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 3 out of 5

Getting the right thickness, making sure they didn't burn, getting the black lines to be straight...yeah, there are a few places you could mess up. Heck, I dropped and broke quite a few, so try not to get too frustrated if they don't turn out perfect. Whoever is eating them will think they look and taste delicious, no matter what!

Simplified Lemon Poppy Seed Bread

Why do I call this "simplified" lemon poppy seed bread? The original post goes into such excessive detail, you begin to wonder if author lives in a white home with padded walls. I'm telling you, it's on the side of ridiculous. So I'm going to take this post from CookingClassy and try to simplify it for you. It's delicious bread so I don't want instructions like, "Allow to cool 5 minutes in loaf pan (and no longer than 8 minutes)" to deter you from trying it out yourself because of how annoyed you are by their instructions!

Here's what you'll need:

1 2/3 cups of flour
2 Tablespoons of poppy seeds
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of sugar
2 Tablespoons of lemon zest (they say 3 lemons, I used 2 without any problems)
1/2 cup of unsalted butter at room temp.
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons of sour cream (see what I mean?)
1/4 cup of milk
2 Tablespoons of lemon juice

For the glaze:
1/4 cup of sugar
3 Tablespoons of lemon juice

Start by preheating your oven to 350, take your bread pan, coat it with PAM (or butter) and flour the inside of the pan. Trust me, it'll make it a lot easier to get it out of the pan once all is said and done.

Grab a medium size bowl (not your mixer) and whisk together the flour, poppy seeds, baking powder and salt until combined (they say 20 seconds but honestly, who's counting??).

In your mixer, add your sugar and lemon zest.

Here it gets kind of ridiculous but using your fingertips, rub the lemon zest and the sugar together until the sugar becomes pale yellow. Hey, at least your fingers will smell delicious!

Add butter to the mixture and mix until it's fluffy. Be sure to scrape the sides to get it all whipped together. Add one egg at a time and finally, add the vanilla. Note: if you drop an eggshell and then accidentally put it on high instead of turning off the mixer, it's really frustrating getting all the shell pieces out... or... so I've been told... ahem...

In a small bowl, whisk together your milk and sour cream and heat in the microwave until warm (30 seconds and it'll start to curdle!)

Now here is where the instructions really start to annoy me. They want you to add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the mixing bowl, then 1/2 of the milk mixture, then 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice, then another 1/3 of the flour, 1/2 of the milk mixture, 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice, then the rest of the flour mixture. If you want to add all the ingredients this way, it's up to you, but I honestly don't see how this is going to affect the way the bread tastes. My advice? Just don't add the flour mixture all at once or you'll have a big mess to clean up!

Pour the dough into the bread pan and smooth out the top.

Bake for 40 minutes, cover it with foil (making sure the foil doesn't touch the bread), and then bake for another 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Now as I mentioned earlier, they want you to wait 5 minutes before removing the bread from the pan. While it's cooling, add your lemon juice and sugar in small bowl and heat for 15-30 seconds, or until the sugar has dissolved. This will serve as your "glaze".

Take the bread out of the pan and brush the top with the glaze. Give it a few seconds to absorb the first coat, and then add on another coat of glaze. The more glaze, the better (considering it's not very thick).

And there you have it, folks. The simplified version of lemon poppy seed bread! Try not to devour it all at once before your drug test...

TOTAL COSTS: About $25 (if you don't have any ingredients - prices from Vons)
$3.29 for flour
$6.29 for poppy seeds
$1.99 for baking powder
$.99 for salt
$2.69 for sugar
$.99 for 2 lemons (used lemon juice from lemons)
$.99 for butter
$2.79 for eggs
$1.99 for sour cream
$2.29 for milk
Used homemade recipe for vanilla extract

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 1 hour, 30 minutes
30 minutes to prep the dough
50 minutes in oven
5 minutes to cool
5 minutes to glaze

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 2 out of 5
Making bread isn't difficult, I assure you, it's just instructions like the original that make it sound more complicated than it actually is. The hardest part is making sure you don't burn the darn thing. Keep an eye on it and you'll do just fine!

Mini Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins

I'm from Kalamazoo, MI (odd name, I know) but they're home to some of the best donuts (doughnuts?) in the country - Sweetwater's Donuts. I have found no real comparison in Los Angeles, so when I saw this recipe on AverieCooks, I thought I'd make my own as a nice morning treat with a cup o' coffee. If you have half an hour to spare and a mini muffin tin, you should definitely give these a shot (I may or may not be typing with one hand with a mini doughnut in the other...)

To make 24 mini donuts, you'll need:
1 large egg
5 Tablespoons of softened unsalted butter
1/4 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of packed brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
3/4 cup of buttermilk (I used 2% and they came out fine)
1 1/4 cup of flour
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
Pinch of salt

For the sugar coating you'll need:
3 Tablespoons of melted unsalted butter
1/4 cup of sugar
1-2 teaspoons of cinnamon (the more cinnamon you use, the darker they'll look)

Start by preheating your oven to 350 and spray the inside of your mini muffin pan with PAM.

Add the egg, butter, sugars, and vanilla to a stand mixer and beat until it's light and fluffy. Be sure to scrape the sides to it's all whipped together. Add the (butter)milk and beat to combine.

Add the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt on low until just incorporated. Expect it to be a little lumpy and thick.

Add the mixture to your mini muffin pan until each cavity is 3/4ths of the way full.

Bake for 9-11 minutes, or until you can insert a toothpick and the center comes out clean. Let them cool for 10 minutes in the pans before removing, at which point, you can make your sugar coating.

To make the sugar coating, use two bowls - one with the melted butter (about 20 seconds in the microwave should do it), the other with the sugar and cinnamon. Do not combine the two!

Once the donuts have cooled, dip the tops into the melted butter bowl and then roll around in the cinnamon sugar bowl so the tops are completely covered. If you want to cover the entire donut with cinnamon sugar, just make sure you melt enough butter and have enough cinnamon sugar on hand! Note that depending on how much cinnamon you use will depend on how dark the donuts look.

You can eat these right out of the oven, refrigerate them for later, or freeze them for up to 3 months for another morning snack (though to be honest, I'd be surprised if these lasted for more than a couple days in any household!)

TOTAL COSTS: About $24 (if you don't have any ingredients - prices from Vons)
$2.79 for eggs (though you only need one)
$.99 for butter
$2.69 for sugar
$2.29 for milk
$3.29 for flour
$4.79 for cinnamon
$1.99 for baking powder
$3.98 for nutmeg
$.99 for salt (though you only need a pinch)
Used homemade recipe for brown sugar and vanilla extract

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 30 minutes
15 minutes to prep mini donuts
10 minutes to bake
10 minutes to cool
5 minutes to dip all in butter and cinnamon sugar

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 2 out of 5
The hardest part is making sure they don't burn in the oven but as long as you keep an eye on them, they'll be fine. My favorite part? They're enjoyable for any season!

Irish Soda Bread

Happy St. Patrick's Day! In the spirit of the holiday, what better day to make traditional Irish soda bread? Honestly, I had never made it before (never even heard of it before!) but when my husband said it was delicious, and it wouldn't take 2-3 hours to make because there's no yeast that needs to rise, I gave it a shot. Now the original post from Spoonful is written by an actual Irish woman, so I trust her recipe. However, I made a few adjustments (such as converting the measurements for you below and giving a helpful hint near the end). Here's what you'll need:


* 1 1/2 C of white flour
* 1/2 C of whole wheat flour
* 1 teaspoon of baking soda
* 1 teaspoon of butter (but I did a Tablespoon and it came out great!)
* 1 1/2 C of buttermilk
* (optional) A fist full of oat bran

First, preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Next, if you have a sieve, lay it over the rim of the bowl and sieve the white flour and baking soda. If you don't, you can use a sifter like I did.

Once you're done, pour in the whole wheat flour.

Using your fingers, rub the butter into the mixture and lift the mixture above the bowl so as to let in as much air as possible. This isn't going to rise as much as a typical loaf of bread so this is an important step.

If you want, you can add the oat bran here (it's a good source of fiber).

Pour in your buttermilk all at once and using your hands, combine it to form a dough in a circular pattern.

Don't overmix it or it will become dense and clumpy when baked so combine the buttermilk until you're able to put the dough onto a floured surface. I know, it'll look like the blob but that's ok.

Add flour until you're able to form the dough into a ball. Note that your hands will get covered in dough (I had to wash my hands 2 or 3 times during the kneading!)

Roll it out until it's roughly 1" thick.

Flour your pan or baking tray. I decided to use a 9" cake pan, since it closely resembled what the original post used.

Now here's where I changed it a bit... instead of cutting into the bread and then putting it in the pan, put it in the pan first. Trust me, it won't be easy transferring it and if you do all the cutting and poking first, you'll just have to redo it. So, put the dough in the pan, make a shallow cross-cut over the dough, and poke the top using a fork.

Put it in your oven for 35-45 minutes (every oven is different so just keep an eye on it) but 5-10 minutes before you take it out, flip the bread over in the pan and cook the underside to darken the bottom. I took it out at 35 minutes and it looked great! I recommend putting butter or jam on it as soon as it comes out of the oven and eating it with some corned beef and cabbage! Slainte!

TOTAL COSTS: About $10 (if you don't have any of the ingredients - prices from Vons)

$3.29 for flour and whole wheat flour
$1.59 for baking soda
$.99 for butter
$2.39 for buttermilk
Oat bran optional

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 1 hour

25 minutes of prepping

35 minutes of baking

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 2 out of 5

It's not as simple as pouring ingredients in a pan and sticking it in the oven, but it's pretty close. You might have some difficulty with the kneading because it will be very wet at first but keep adding flour until you're ready to put it in the pan!

Scrabble Cookies

While trying to find unique Valentine's Day sweets, I came across this post on Instructables and thought, "That's perfect! It looks so easy and with so few ingredients needed, I'll give it a shot!" Little did I know this was a lot harder than it looked... still, if you want a unique treat, here's what you'll need:


1. Sugar Cookie Mix (or you can make them from scratch if you're fancy like that!)
2. 1 stick of butter
3. 4 eggs (1 for the cookie mix, 3 for the icing)
4. Flour (for the table)
5. 4 cups of powdered sugar
6. 1 t of vanilla
7. Black icing

First, make your sugar cookies, either from scratch or following the recipe on the back of the cookie mix. Once made, roll out the dough onto a floured surface to 1/4" thick. Make sure to flour your rolling pin, as it will get sticky.

Cut your tiles as small as you like. Regulation Scrabble tiles seem to be 3/4"x3/4" but I made some smaller and some larger than that. Totally up to you how big to size your cookies.

Once they're all cut, I recommend placing them on parchment paper, though you certainly don't have to. I was able to make 114 cookie squares.

Place them in the oven for 8-9 minutes at 375 degrees. Once they're done baking, let them cool and start on the icing. I decided to follow this recipe for royal icing and you will have a LOT of leftover icing so I recommend cutting the recipe in half. However, if you want to make the full recipe and save some icing for later, mix 3 egg whites in a mixer until they're frothy. Then add 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time.

Once all the sugar is added, place the mixer on high until the icing peaks. It'll take a little while, about 5 minutes, so don't be discouraged if it's too runny at first.

Now frosting these little squares as perfectly as the original post was not easy. I tried different methods, to see what worked best:

Worst method: trying to frost X's on a bunch, then going back and spreading them with a toothpick. The reason this didn't work was because the frosting hardened so fast that it ended up looking like a mess.

OK method: frosting one at a time and using a toothpick to smooth it out. It was really time consuming but it did the job.

Best method: Frosting thick outlines and then the inside of the squares all in one swoop.

Once the frosting hardens, which doesn't take long at all, best of luck in piping on the letters and numbers. You need a really steady hand, especially if your tiles are small. And I only ended up piping a quarter of the tiles because it was so time-consuming.

Play a round of Scrabble with your friends, your partner, whoever you like and try not to eat your hand!

TOTAL COSTS: About $18 to make 114 cookies (if you don't own any of the ingredients - prices from Vons)
$2.50 for sugar cookie mix
$1.99 for powdered sugar
$2.99 for black icing gel
$2.39 for eggs
$.99 for butter
$4.99 for vanilla
$1.99 for flour

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: About 2 1/2 hours
1 hour and 30 minutes to make dough, cut into tiles, and bake
15 minutes to make icing
30 minutes to frost all the tiles
15 minutes to pipe on letters (though I only got through a quarter of the tiles)

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 4 out of 5
If you don't have a steady hand, the letters and numbers will come out uneven and your lines won't be straight. If you go in not expecting this to look exactly like the original post, then you'll have fun and will make something your friends and family will enjoy!